Kaimercury

This is a beautiful bra, first of all. I'd wanted it for months but didn't want to shell out so much money for it at the time, especially since I don't seem to have much luck with unlined bras and knew it wouldn't quite fit perfectly. I ended up getting it on sale for a great price, but I'm happy that I waited because, of course, it doesn't quite fit perfectly.

This bra has a similar shape, fit, and construction as Cleo Minnie Balconnet Bra (7431) . The bottom half of the cup is a solid fabric with a mesh overlay, and the top half of the ... cup is stretch lace.

And there is where we run into problems.

There is simply too much lace, which makes the bra way more open at the top of the cup than it needs to be. There's so much extra lace that adding the stretch feature just seems like a cruel joke. It's looks great when you first put it on and get all your scooping and swooping and adjusting taken care of, but no dice if you plan on doing anything but standing still all day. As I sit here with posture my mother would probably be only slightly disappointed in, the lace is wrinkling, flopping, and sticking out about an inch for each cup. The solid/mesh part of the bra fits flawlessly, though. I'm going to go ahead and say that this bra, like Minnie, was likely designed for FOT girls, which is disappointing as I am FOB and Cleo's unlined bras are some of the cutest I've ever seen. I'm going to try altering this bra to make it more closed on top, so I'll have another review once that's done.

In terms of the rest of the bra, it's pretty standard for a Cleo. The 30 band fits like a 28 and does not offer much stretch--perhaps they should have made the band stretchier and the lace less so. The center gore sits down perfectly and is comfortable if not a little high (it pokes once in a while but for the most part I don't feel any discomfort while wearing the bra), the straps are a reasonable distance apart and fully adjustable, and the cups handle my wide-rooted breasts just fine without coming up too high under the armpits. It's a very lightweight and comfortable bra (which is great as summer just started and it is very hot). Actually, it feels about as light as or lighter than some of my bralettes, but there is still surprisingly good headlight coverage (as long as you keep them in the solid/mesh part of the bra).

This is easily one of the...This is the prettiest bra I own. The solid fabric, the straps, and the hardware are a gorgeous cobalt blue, and the blue part of the cup has a black mesh overlay with little dots cut out so the blue comes through like polka dots. The lace is black and very pretty and soft, the band is solid black, and there's a tiny hot pink bow in the center gore. It fits well under shirts and actually isn't visible, even under white (but if the shirt is sheer, you're on your own). On top of that, it makes the girls look fabulous! Not squished in the least, but also not pointy, and it seems like they even offer a little lift, though that might just be my imagination. Rest assured I'd be wearing this thing way more often if not for the issue with the lace. If you're looking into this, I would strongly recommend +1 band size and -1 cup size from whatever you were measured as. (For me, I'm measured as a 28G and got the 30FF.) Like Minnie, if the lace being too open is your only problem, I would strongly advise against sizing down to get the lace to fit, because then you'll just end up with a cup that is tragically small... and still too much lace.
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Updated on Jun 26, 2016 Flag this

Ooooooh myyyy goodness. I'm supposed to be doing a million other things right now but I just got this bra in the mail after spending the past few months trying to find a good strapless bra in time for summer in order to replace my Parfait By Affinitas Jeanie Strapless Contour Bra (4815) , which had always been uncomfortably tight and really mean to my rib cage. I was avoiding this one a little because the reviews were mixed and it was one of the more expensive options, but since my best fitting bras are all Cleo (especially 28G - Cleo » Maddie Moulded ... T-shirt Bra (7201) ) and I had a coupon, I decided to....take the plunge. (Sorry, I'll see myself out shortly.)

This bra is basically everything I was looking for in a strapless and more. Like, for a basic black bra, it is actually really cute! That plunge is no joke! My cleavage (of which I usually have relatively little without the help of padding) looks great, which has basically never happened with a strapless before! The removable straps have little black triangle dot things! And the bow at the center gore is black with gold polka dots! I typically have a strong aversion to the bows at the center gore, but this one...I can work with this one. Additionally, inside the cups, along the underwire, you'll find "Crafted for fit. Styled for fun." in gold lettering, and even though I'm the only one who'll really see it anyway, I think it's a nice touch. The bra itself feels really sturdy and well-made (no flimsy cups!), and the fabric doesn't irritate my skin in any way. It's got not one, but TWO silicone grips all the way along the top and bottom of the band (so 4 per band, total) to keep it in place, and let me tell you, those things are doing their job. I did a lot of jumping in this just to be sure.

In terms of fit, I thought it might be a little big, just looking at it out of the box, but it fits like a dream. I have wide roots of average height, even fullness, am self-supporting and somewhere between shallow and average projection, and these cups are perfect. I get the perfect amount of coverage and a nice, rounded-but-not-too-rounded shape, which is what I prefer. There's no squishing, no quadding at the top of the cups or near the center gore, no wrinkling at the bottom of the cup, no orange-in-a-glass, no cups coming up too high on my chest or extending up into my armpits or flopping around on the sides or not being able to contain the sides in the first place.With the band, I do feel like it could be just a tiny bit tighter, and while I'm curious to see how the 28G (my actual size) would fit, I don't think I'll take the chance. Even though my band size should be a 28 based on my measurements, 28 bands (and tighter 30 bands, even) tend to cause me A LOT of discomfort and sometimes even some bruising/soreness because my rib cage flares out a little, so I tend to stick to 30 bands when I can. Even so, I did try the bra on with just the loosest set of hooks and it stayed in place and is supremely comfortable (words I thought I'd never say), so I think the 30 is a safe bet for me. If you don't have the same rib cage issue I have, though, I'd say go with your measured size. In terms of cup volume/fit, this 30FF fits very similarly to my 28G Maddie and my 28G - Cleo » Koko Belle (9066) , so it seems to run pretty true to size. All in all, if you're looking for a good strapless that's not _too_ shallow and that also doesn't look closer to a utilitarian bandeau with the center gore going almost all the way to the top of the cups, I'd highly recommend this one, especially if you've had luck with Cleo before.
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Updated on Jun 20, 2017 Flag this

This is my second attempt at a convertible bra since I remeasured; the first was the Freya Deco Delight Moulded Multiway Bra (1561) which, like all Decos, seems to be a shape mismatch for me (my review on that one is here: http://bra.pe/XQlT/ ) . I'd say I have wide roots of average height, self-supporting FOB, and the Koko Belle fits me beautifully whether worn conventionally or racerback.

(Note for anyone who had an eye on this bra and was confused as to whether or not it is actually multiway: It is. I went on a bunch of different websites before I purchased it trying ... to confirm this because some websites say it is and some don't mention anything about it being multiway at all, and for whatever reason none of the pictures on any sites show the clips on the straps that you can use to convert it, but they are there.)

This is a really beautiful bra. It's all red with deep purple hardware and a small purple bow on the gore. The gore and wings are both double layer: mesh on the inside that feels really nice and non-scratchy against your skin, and a pretty lace on the outside that doesn't snag shirts. The cups are satiny smooth, and the straps have these tiny, kind of shimmery embossed polka dots that are really cute.

This bra gives me decent lift and cleavage without squishing or flattening, and once I put it on and scoop everything in, I don't have to adjust it much during the day, which is a relief since I was constantly having to adjust the Deco. It's comfortable as well: the band is snug but not too tight, and the straps are fully adjustable. The gore sits where it's supposed to and doesn't rest on any tissue, and the underwire doesn't poke or rub anywhere (sometimes I'm conscious of it against my rib cage, but that's a problem I seem to have with all bras). It works under most cuts of shirts, including v-necks, although I did find that the inside edge of the cup at the top liked to peek out of my very lowest v-necks. It is a very bright red (they weren't playing any games when they named the colorway 'Poppy'), so I can't wear it under thin or very light colored shirts, but for the shirts that I can wear it with, it's amazing, and gives me a great shape overall, somewhat rounded but still natural-looking and not too projected. Of the many (many, many, many) bras I've tried over the past few months, this is definitely my favorite, along with the Cleo Maddie Moulded T-shirt Bra (7201) .
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Updated on Dec 07, 2015 Flag this

I really, really wanted to love this bra. The Twilight Blue was gorgeous on the website and just as pretty in person. It was on the higher end of what I prefer to pay for bras, and the quality is definitely there, but it just didn't give me the shape I would have liked or the magical cleavage I expected based on the pictures.

I resized myself as a 28G a few months ago, as I have a 27" rib cage, but I'm finding that some of my 28G bras cause too much rubbing against my ribs, leaving them really sore at the end of the day. For ... that reason (and because this bra starts at a 30 band), I decided to try the 30FF. In terms of fit, I have no complaints. Looking at it in the packaging, I thought the cup would be way too big, but once it was actually on, it fit great. After a scoop-and-swoop I have a tiny bit of quadding along the inside edge of the cups, but it goes away once everything settles. The straps didn't feel too wide and they adjusted more than enough for me; the underwire felt comfortably tight, and while the bra did push the girls together, I didn't feel like they squished or flattened them any.

In terms of construction, this really is a lovely bra. It's a 3-section cup, so it's not as firm as my Cleo Maddie Moulded T-shirt Bra (7201) , but it is lined, so it's also not as flimsy-feeling as my Freya Marvel Side Panel Bra (1501). The allover lace didn't feel scratchy against my skin, and it looked pretty durable despite its delicate appearance.

Now, the reason I'm not keeping this bra is because it gives me a pointier shape than I'd like. Not super pointy, but 'natural' pointy. Still, I prefer a more rounded silhouette, so this is a problem for me. The other issue is that I don't actually have much cleavage in most bras, and I was hoping this bra would help out with that, but it didn't actually do too much. It helped a little, but I didn't really get much more than I get with Maddie (which isn't very much). I've seen reviews where people have said that you should go down a cup size if you want the amazing boost shown in some of the pictures, but I feel like there would be too much of an issue with quadding if I did that. I have FOB, self-supporting breasts with average-wide roots, and there's just a bit of separation between them--less than an inch, definitely, but still enough that I usually need to wear a bra with some kind of padding if I want really awesome cleavage. While this bra does have removable padding for smaller cup sizes (according to the website), there is none for larger cup sizes, so you have to depend on the bra's shape itself, and unfortunately for me, that didn't work out.
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Updated on Mar 03, 2016 Flag this

For context, I measured myself a while ago at a 28G but lean towards 30FF for comfort because my ribs are prone to getting sore. I'm in this weird place right now where I'm right between a 28/30 and right between a G/GG, so not a big enough difference to officially re-measure, but enough that my bras are fitting a little differently than they used to--I'm getting a bit of quadding in bras that did not quad before, and some of my 28/30 bands are perfectly fine, while others have gotten a bit uncomfortable.

I actually ordered this bra 3 separate times in order to try it on in ... 3 different sizes. Why? Because while it's rare for me to find a bra in my size that's a good shape match, is reasonably comfortable, and fits my preferences for projection, cleavage-assist, etc, it's *extremely* rare for me to find a bra that covers all those bases AND where the cup isn't too full/tall/wide for me, so when I discovered that this one worked under even my lowest V-necks and did not extend into my underarms, I was determined to make it work.

I recently donated an older Cleo bra that had started to feel too tight in the band. That one was a 28G, so I went for the 30FF as my first size for Koko. It was waaaaay too small in the cups, and the band felt tighter than the 28 I had donated. I also had an issue where I was quadding a lot on top but the cups had empty space at the bottom. Next, I tried the 30G, hoping that the bigger cups would solve all of that. It did not. The band was still uncomfortably tight, and while I wasn't really quadding anymore, I still had empty space at the bottom of the cup. I also couldn't get the underwires to sit in the correct spot--they'd always slide down, leading to even more empty cup space. Overall, the cups for the 30FF fit better than the cups for the 30G, so I reordered again in the 32F. Bingo.

The band for the 32F fits about the same as my 30 bands, maybe just slightly tighter--it's not a very stretchy band at all, so it generally feels a little more restricting even though it technically fits the same. With the cups, I do quad when I first put the bra on and adjust, but when everything gets settled, the top of the cup forms a smooth line (undetectable under my t-shirts!), and there's no empty space at the bottom of the cups anymore. Finding the right strap length was a little tricky, and they dug into my shoulders for the first half hour or so until I'd figured it out, but they're fine now. My only issue was with the underwires. They were pressing really hard against my ribs, but all I did was bend them outward very slightly, and they're a lot better now. To test out the fit, I wore it for 11 hours straight yesterday and experienced minimal discomfort.

In terms of looks, I mean, it's a plain black bra. There isn't anything special or fancy about it, because that's not what I needed. I needed a plain, everyday, black bra to replace a different plain, everyday, black bra that's showing major signs of wear. It does have a cute ribbon with polka dots at the center gore, but that's it.

Fit is great, as mentioned above. Cleavage is something I tend to have to work for; I have issues with lack of cleavage in many bras, especially ones in my size, because they do not usually include any padding and the cups are usually a little too wide-set or separated for my needs, so I was worried I'd have the same issue with this bra. Not so. My cleavage looks amazing. And my cleavage looks amazing without the bra flattening me out and without me worrying that I'm going to fall out of it, which is always a plus. I've had no strap slippage (usually a problem) and no lines across the tops of my breasts after taking it off despite the cup being a little bit closed on top (also usually a problem). Comfort is between good and great. Because of my inability to find stuff in my size that suits me, I'd defaulted to a US 32DDD as it was cheap, padded, and the biggest-smallest size that was readily available, so I'm pretty used to wearing looser bands and thought this would feel too tight since it fits like a 30. It's honestly fine, it feels secure, occasionally a bit restricting, but not like it's cutting into me anywhere. It stays put all day, too, even when reaching for stuff on unfairly high shelves. I think once I wear it more and get used to a band that's actually the right size, I'll feel better in it.

Construction is pretty sturdy. The cups feel just a bit stiff, which was why I'd been concerned about it flattening me, but, again, not an issue. The underwire channels seem like they'll hold up well, and the band and straps feel like they'll be able to go a long time without getting stretched out. As a bonus, this bra has a J-Hook, which is fantastic because I wear a lot of racerback shirts as well and have no racerback bras in my actual size. As a bonus to the bonus, it's a *sliding* J-Hook, so I (or you) can adjust the straps as much as you need to when the hook is not in use, and when you do need the hook, you can clip it wherever makes sense for the clothing that's going on over it.

Overall, I'm super happy with this bra! I must have tried on at least 50-60 bras since resizing myself, including a bunch from Cleo, and this is the first one that I feel truly fits, is a great shape match, is not too tall, and does what I need it to do. Would happily repurchase in different colorways if I managed to find any available.
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Updated on Feb 24, 2022 Flag this

I think I might be one of those rare people for whom Jude actually works! I recently found out that I am not a 32DDD, but a 28G, so I've been trying on lots of different bras to find ones that fit comfortably. After a good many failures, I stumbled upon Jude and its replacement, Cleo Neve Plunge T-shirt Bra (7196) . After reading countless reviews, I decided to go with Neve since everyone seemed to like it so much better.

Let's just say there have only been a few times in my life that I've felt regret similar to the regret I felt wearing Neve ... for an entire day.

Jude, on the other hand, is pretty great, and works for me in all the areas where Neve failed. Jude's band is tight but comfortable on the loosest hook, and while I am conscious more often than not of the underwire against my ribcage (more on the left than on the right for some reason, but this is common with all bras for me), it doesn't hurt; with Neve (same size), the band was painfully tight, and even with an extender I still ended up with sore ribs. Jude's underwire comes up a comfortable distance beneath my armpits; Neve's wires came up too high and constantly stabbed me just under the armpits, so I'd keep (futilely) having to adjust it all day (these issues together were bad enough that my friend thought I was either going to burst into tears in the office bathroom or just light the bra on fire right there). The straps and cups on both bras feel about the same width (I got rid of Neve before I purchased Jude so I don't have exact measurements to compare), but I feel like the cups themselves might be a slightly different shape. With Neve I ended up with the same problem I had with the equally disappointing Freya Deco Moulded Plunge Bra (4234). The cups were filled at the bottom and I had a bit of quadding on the inside edges of the cup, but there was a gap where the top of the cups met the straps unless I was standing with absolutely perfect posture (which, sorry, Mom, I am usually not). The gaping issue didn't go away even after scooping, so maybe the cups were too tall for me or I'm just not full enough on top to fit them properly. In any case, I don't have those issues at all with Jude, which fits nicely with no gaps or quadding or empty spaces. In short, I'm super happy I went against the crowd and gave Jude a shot. It doesn't give me as much cleavage as I thought it might (which is fine), and I know the hot pink trim and straps will show through thin shirts (also fine, since I have a solid black bra for just this purpose), but it's pretty comfortable and gives me a nice silhouette that's not melon-round but also isn't pointy/conical, a problem I had with some of the other bras I've tried recently. Overall it's a great t-shirt bra for me, and I'm assuming once it stretches out a little and I get more adjusted to wearing tighter bands in general, it'll feel even better. I'd definitely recommend that anyone having similar issues with Neve try Jude instead before giving up completely.
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Updated on Nov 05, 2015 Flag this

Very pretty bra and well made, but probably not the best for my shape. I am even- and center-full, and the cup technically did fit, but the top cut in a little too much. I couldn't tell from the pictures/description when I bought this if it had any padding or not--it does not. And with the lack of padding, I end up with a more natural shape than what I'm comfortable with.

Updated on Apr 05, 2023 Flag this

This...didn't work well for me. I purchased the 30FF first, since that's the size I usually wear (even though I'm measured at a 28G, because my rib cage flares out a little which makes 28 bands very uncomfortable most of the time), and the cups felt big in some places and small in others. The cup felt too shallow, too open at the top, too tall, and too wide, extending way up into my armpit, but I seemed to have orange-in-a-glass syndrome otherwise. It _seemed_ like my breasts should have been able to fill the bottom of the cup, but they just...didn't. It was almost as if the ... cups kept slipping to a part where it was less shallow in order to accommodate my shape (even fullness, not much immediate projection, self-supporting, wide roots of average height, slightly shallow), which resulted in a big empty space in the cup that just sat against my IMF awkwardly.

For the sake of thoroughness I also purchased this one cup size down (30F - Pour Moi » St. Tropez Strapless Bra (7715) ) and it didn't fit either. The cups were waaaaay too small, even more shallow, and I had quadding at the top of the cups and just above the center gore, along with the weird cup-slippage issue, but at least with the smaller cup size, the cups didn't extend so far back or up. I'm going to label this one a shape mismatch, but I think it might work better for those who are a little fuller on top and more shallow than I am.
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Updated on Jun 20, 2017 Flag this

I'm kind of mixed on this bra. It is beautiful; I fell in love with it the first time I saw it, but due to a bad experience with the 28G - Freya » Deco Moulded Plunge Bra (4234) (quadding along the inner edges of the cups, gaping at the tops of the cups where they meet the straps, cups coming up way too high to be comfortable for me), I was reluctant to actually buy it, thinking it would fit basically the same way. This one actually showed up on my Bratabase recommendations in this size, so I decided to finally give it a ... shot.

In terms of look and construction, I love it. I got the Dove colorway, which is a light-medium gray with white lace trim and darker gray straps. I thought it might be too light to wear under certain shirts (lighter bras tend to show terribly on me), but I wore it under a white v-neck tee with no problems at all--like, the thing practically disappeared under the shirt. The fabric is smooth to the touch and feels amazing, the cups feel sturdy, and the band has decent stretch without feeling like it's going to get stretched out too soon. The straps on this are fully adjustable, so the convertible hooks are separate sliders that you can move up and down the straps as you need them (which is amazing, since I'm used to bras like the Betsey Johnson Intimates Stocking Stripe Lightly Lined Demi Bra (723803) where you have the straps that are only half adjustable and the J-hook stuck in the center). My only qualm with the construction of this bra is that when you wear it racerback, in the back where the straps meet the band, you get this kind of lumpy, crinkly thing going on...it's a little hard to describe, but you can kind of see it in this picture: http://bra.pe/IXeG/ . It's like the trim along the band is too stiff to convert with the rest of the bra properly, so it kind of pokes out instead, and it's visible. Nobody else seemed to notice it all day, but I noticed it, so it annoyed me a little.

The fit of this bra is...um...I'm not exactly sure. It's the right size, but might be a shape mismatch again, though not quite as bad a mismatch as the Deco Plunge. I compared it to my 28G - Cleo » Maddie Moulded T-shirt Bra (7201) which fits me perfectly, and the cups are roughly the same size, but shaped differently. Compared to Maddie, the cups aren't quite as wide, the underwires don't come up as high under the arms, the cup is taller along the inside edge, and the projection looks to be more towards the top of the cup (for Maddie, the projection is sort of in the middle). It also seems like the tops of the cups where they meet the straps want to point outward a tiny bit, whereas Maddie points a bit inward. So my problem here is that initially, after scooping, the bra fits perfectly, and I even get some awesome cleavage, but once I start to move and things get resettled, I end up with gaping at the top of the cups, requiring me to scoop again. It's not really bad enough for me to say I'll never wear the bra again, which was the case after trying on the Deco Plunge, and it seems to be difficult to find convertible bras in this size that aren't super bright colors and won't cost your entire paycheck, so I'll keep this one for now and hope that maybe one day it'll fit better, but in the meantime I'll still keep an eye out for something that might work better for me.
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Updated on Nov 14, 2015 Flag this

I liked this bra at first, but not so much right now. I've owned it for about a year and it's always felt slightly too tight in the band for me, but because I got it free (got lost in the mail and the company let me keep it when it finally arrived), I figured I'd just get an extender and make it work. It is more comfortable with the extender--even just using one extra row of hooks helped a lot. The cups quad very slightly, but I'd tried the 28GG previously and the cups were much too big, so I stuck with the G since it's not ... really noticeable to anyone but me anyway. It's pretty comfortable, especially given that I deal with a little bit of rib cage flare and haven't worn longline bras before. I also liked that it gave me a slightly more rounded shape--I'm not a huge fan of pointy or natural shape for my boobs. It works pretty well under shirts and the lace isn't super noticeable. My only complaint, really, is that the past few times I've put it on, I've noticed that for some reason it makes my boobs look...long, and downturned. I have no idea how else to describe this. Maybe it's a shape mismatch or the apex is too low for me or something, because the cup itself is filled in all the right places, and my boobs aren't squished, it's just the bra makes them look like they are. It's the weirdest thing. In any case, because of that, I don't really wear it much anymore, but would still recommend it if it's the right shape for you.
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Updated on Apr 05, 2023 Flag this